"The Art of Lin Chi-fong"
2001-05-05 until 2001-05-27
Taipei Caves Art Center
Taipei, TW, CN China

The 2001 solo-exhibition of Lin Chi-fong is a collection of works that the young painter has been creating during the last decade. It includes compositions from his college years, fine-line style-flower and bird paintings that witness of his advanced studies with miss Du Manhua at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou and, what is more, a series of fine-line delineations modeled after ancient paintings and completed during the past few years. The strong retrospective quality of the current exhibition enables the viewer to better comprehend his past and present artistic concepts. The exhibition is also an impulse for the painter himself to reflect upon his artistic development and think about the possible way to thread upon into the future.

Lin Chi-fong's oeuvre maybe divided into two distinct groups. In the first group, Lin Chi-fong bases himself on masterpieces that deal with Taoist and Buddhist material as handed down from age to age by the ancients. In the second group, he paints flowers and birds from life. These two different paths bear a striking parallel to the read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles - theory by the late Ming (1368-1644) artist Dong Qichang (1555-1636). In his essay Hua Zhi (The Meaning of Painting) Dong Qichang states his central ideas at the outset: The painter has to take into account six principles. The first principle is the movement of the spirit resonance. One cannot study the spirit resonance. It comes with birth. It is a natural gift. But some things, however, can be learned. Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles, and remove the dusty world from within your innersole. Accumulate nature and gully within yourself, establish the outlines, and paint at hand. Only then the landscapes will be able to transmit their spirit. Although Dong Qichang's theory is related to landscape painting, but as a whole it may clarify how painters since the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), especially those who belonged to the literati class, considered both general education and the accumulation of creative capability to be part of the basic artistic creation.

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